ABS and NAB employees charged with insider trading

An Australian Bureau of Statistics staffer and a NAB employee have been arrested on insider trading and corruption charges over allegations they made $7 million by trading on market sensitive information on the Australian dollar.

The Australian Federal Police said a 24-year-old ABS man allegedly gave his 26-year-old friend at NAB market sensitive information before it was released publicly by the ABS.

They allege his friend then took the information to trade on the foreign exchange derivatives market.

The charges against the NAB employee are insider trading, corruption of a public official and money laundering.

The federal police said the pair knew each other from university. The ABS man was based in Canberra and the NAB employee was in Melbourne.

They are expected to appear in court in those cities on Friday or Saturday after authorities executed a number of search warrants.

The federal police allege proceeds of crime were found in residential property, funds in bank accounts and a motor vehicle.

They said the employee at NAB did not use any funds or systems from NAB.

ASIC would not say how it became aware of the suspicious trades, as part of a general policy not to reveal such details.

A statement from NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne is expected this afternoon.

"The person is no longer an employee," a NAB spokeswoman said.

The two men are expected to appear in court in Melbourne and Canberra today. The AFP will allege that the ABS employee utilised sensitive information to ‘‘predict fluctuations in the Australian dollar’’.

The information was market sensitive because it had not yet been released by the ABS. ABS data is strictly monitored and issued to the market at exactly 11.30am on any given day.

The data is market sensitive as it gives the latest snapshot of the economy and is used to inform market participants who are making daily trades.

ASIC said movements in the Australian dollar "directly or indirectly" affected the whole economy and reflected the serious nature of the allegations.

"The integrity of this market is a fundamental importance to all Australians,’’ ASIC’s head of market enforcement, Chris Savundra said.

NAB said the charges did not relate to the former employee's work at NAB.

‘‘No NAB money or no NAB customer money is involved. No NAB systems have been involved in any trading and no other NAB employee is involved,’’ it said in a statement.

Chief executive Cameron Clyne added: “While I can’t talk about the details of the charges, I can say that the activity alleged by authorities is unlawful and completely unacceptable to NAB and our core values of doing the right thing by our customers, our shareholders and our staff.”

“NAB has a strict Code of Conduct that all employees must adhere to as part of their employment and if NAB is aware that any employee has acted contrary to its Code of Conduct, we will take appropriate action.”